To a government thus strong in concentrated power and intelligence stands opposed the mass of nations subject to the Austrian sceptre whose natural antipathies have been artfully fostered and strengthened. In Austria the distinctions of class, characteristic of the Middle Ages, are still preserved. The aristocracy and the clergy possess an influence almost unknown in Germany, but solely over the people, not over the government. As corporative bodies they still are, as in the days of Charles VI., convoked for the purpose of holding postulate diets, whose power, with the exception of that of the Hungarian diet, is merely nominal. The nobility, even in Hungary, as everywhere else throughout the Austrian states (more particularly since the Spanish system adopted by Ferdinand II.), is split into two inimical classes, those of the higher and lower aristocracy. Even in Galicia, where the Polish nobility formed, at an earlier period and according to earlier usage, but one body, the distinction of a higher and lower class has been introduced since the occupation of that country by Austria. The high aristocracy are either bound by favors, coincident with their origin, to the court, the great majority among them consisting of families on whom nobility was conferred by Ferdinand II., or they are, if families belonging to the more powerful and more ancient national aristocracy, as, for instance, that of Esterhazy in Hungary, brought by the bestowal of fresh favors into closer affinity with the court and drawn within its sphere. The greater proportion of the aristocracy consequently reside at Vienna. The lower nobility make their way chiefly by talent and perseverance in the army and the civil offices, and are therefore naturally devoted to the government, on which all their hopes in life depend. The clergy, although permitted to retain the whole of their ancient pomp and their influence over the minds of the people, have been rendered dependent upon the government, a point easily gained, the pope being principally protected by Austria.